"To open to civilization the only part of our globe
which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness
which hangs over entire peoples, is, I dare say,
a crusade worthy of this century of progress."
King Leopold II
Introduce Synthesis Paper At this point in our Africa unit, we have read and analyzed a number of works that shed light on the development of Africa's image over the last four hundred years. Much of this image is accredited to the images and writings of very few people and the voices that did matter were largely not included in the story of Africa. In the video we watched, Chimamanda suggests that there is a danger in the single story, especially when it generalizes a continent and it's hundreds of millions of people. Now, it is time to digest all of these resources and consider what they mean in relation to the following claim:
Africa is a place that needed to be saved.
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Synthesis Paper Details:Imagine that you, like Achebe, were caught in a conversation with someone who makes a claim like this. Knowing how important it is to stop the spread of ignorance, you decide to engage with this person and so you tell him to wait right there as you speed home to start a strongly worded argument complete with terrific supports that will cut down the ignoramus's narrow-minded perception and help educate him on the truth about saving the 'dark continent'. In only 3-4 pages, you successfully thwart his claim with direct quotes from at least 5 of the sources we reviewed in class and even further, explain to your now enlightened friend why it is so important to debunk this antiquated and factually untrue rumors about Africa.
What is a Synthesis Essay?
In most college courses that require substantial writing, you are called upon to write researched arguments in which you take a stand on a topic or an issue and then enter into conversation with what has already been written on it. The synthesis question provides you with a number of sources on a topic or an issue plus at least one source that is a graphic, a visual, a picture, or a cartoon.The prompt will call upon you to write a composition that develops a position on the issue and that synthesizes and incorporates perspectives from at least five of the provided sources. You may, of course, draw upon whatever you know about the issue as well, but you must make use of at least five of the sources provided (three must be written works).
Essays
Leo Africanus “Description of Africans”
Olaudoh Equiano “Autobiography of Olaudoh Equiano”
Mark Twain “Soliloquy of King Leopold II”
George Washington Williams's “Open Letter to King Leopold on the Congo”
Joseph Conrad Selection from Heart of Darkness
Chinua Achebe “An Image of Africa”
Adam Hochschild “The Traders are Kidnapping…”
Articles Ota Benga
Videos
Congo-The Brutal History BBC video
“The Danger of a Single Story” Chimamanda Adichie
Music Videos/Lyrics "Do They Know it's Christmas Time At All" Bandaid "
Preparing
You must analyze the argument each source is making so that you can better evaluate if and how you will use the source to support your argument: What claim is the source making about the image of Africa? What data or evidence does the source offer in support of that claim? What are the assumptions or beliefs (explicit or unspoken) that warrant using this evidence or data to support the claim? How can you chart this information in a way that will be easily accessed as your plan your writing?
After Analysis: Finding and Establishing a Position
When considering your thesis, you need to start out by answering the question with a statement of your own position. How will you support that position? And then...go further. What do you believe contributes or had contributed to this issue? When and where did this problem arise? Is this a problem or exaggerated? Why is this idea worth talking about? Who is talking about this conversation? Who isn’t? Why not? Who does it impact directly or indirectly? What complicates this issue? Can you identify a pattern? Is there a break in the pattern? If so, why? Where is this issue going today? Who cares? The best papers will be those in which the thesis and development suggest clearly that the writer has given some thought to the nuances, the complexities of the topic.
Activities to Help Inspire and Organize
Students will work in groups to summarize and list the arguments in each piece. Students will create an organizational chart on their own to help review the works, identify key lines, and draw patterns of support or contrast between the sources.
We will conduct a pinwheel tea party that will recreate conversations between our ‘imaginary’ author guests that will help establish where these authors would stand on a variety claims about Africa. Students will take turns role playing the authors’ positions and build ideas for thesis development.
Supporting Your Argument You need to argue your position with your resources backing you up along the way. You should have different points to your argument and your paragraphs should call upon a variety of those points rather than relying on one source for the entire paragraph. In fact, like all arguments, you need a variety of supports utilized in this argument to show your credibility and knowledge on the topic. You must develop the case for the position by incorporating within your own thinking the conversations you have had with the authors/creators of the primary sources. You should feel free to say things like, "Achebe would agree that..." or “Africanus might have opposed this idea, but the point is still valid because..." or "Hochschild offers a slightly different perspective, one that King Leopold II would have certainly denied..."
Outlining Since your paper will cover a variety of questions related to the prompt, you need to create a thesis that will cover all of those topics. Therefore, it’s really important that you are DONE thinking before you start developing your outline.
Argument Development Each paragraph should develop part of your argument and to support your argument you should call upon a variety of sources. When you introduce a source into your discussion, you will absolutely need to introduce them and their relationship to the topic before their ‘voice’ can be heard. You can assume their position on the topic as long as you support yourself.
Writing You will need to use in text and parenthetical citations in your essay. Transitions are really important in this essay as you are managing a number of different supports and opinions which can get confusing without taking special care in the organization of your information.
Rubric Essay develops a variety of related topics.
Essay consistently uses specific texts from various sources to defend argument.
Different arguments and sources are organized with transitions.
Paper is structured with keywords connecting all structural sentences.
Writing is efficient and uses appositive phrases, adverbial conjunctions, and sentence combination to save space and create a specific meaning.
Credibility of writer is boosted with SAT level vocabulary consistently and appropriately used. The author uses the arguments in the paper to create the motive (so what) in the conclusion.
Print out the transcript!
"To open to civilization the only part of our globe
which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness
which hangs over entire peoples, is, I dare say,
a crusade worthy of this century of progress."
King Leopold II
Introduce Synthesis Paper
At this point in our Africa unit, we have read and analyzed a number of works that shed light on the development of Africa's image over the last four hundred years. Much of this image is accredited to the images and writings of very few people and the voices that did matter were largely not included in the story of Africa. In the video we watched, Chimamanda suggests that there is a danger in the single story, especially when it generalizes a continent and it's hundreds of millions of people. Now, it is time to digest all of these resources and consider what they mean in relation to the following claim:
Africa is a place that needed to be saved.
Synthesis Paper Details:Imagine that you, like Achebe, were caught in a conversation with someone who makes a claim like this. Knowing how important it is to stop the spread of ignorance, you decide to engage with this person and so you tell him to wait right there as you speed home to start a strongly worded argument complete with terrific supports that will cut down the ignoramus's narrow-minded perception and help educate him on the truth about saving the 'dark continent'. In only 3-4 pages, you successfully thwart his claim with direct quotes from at least 5 of the sources we reviewed in class and even further, explain to your now enlightened friend why it is so important to debunk this antiquated and factually untrue rumors about Africa.
What is a Synthesis Essay?
In most college courses that require substantial writing, you are called upon to write researched arguments in which you take a stand on a topic or an issue and then enter into conversation with what has already been written on it. The synthesis question provides you with a number of sources on a topic or an issue plus at least one source that is a graphic, a visual, a picture, or a cartoon.The prompt will call upon you to write a composition that develops a position on the issue and that synthesizes and incorporates perspectives from at least five of the provided sources. You may, of course, draw upon whatever you know about the issue as well, but you must make use of at least five of the sources provided (three must be written works).
Essays
Leo Africanus “Description of Africans”
Olaudoh Equiano “Autobiography of Olaudoh Equiano”
Mark Twain “Soliloquy of King Leopold II”
George Washington Williams's “Open Letter to King Leopold on the Congo”
Joseph Conrad Selection from Heart of Darkness
Chinua Achebe “An Image of Africa”
Adam Hochschild “The Traders are Kidnapping…”
Articles
Ota Benga
Videos
Congo-The Brutal History BBC video
“The Danger of a Single Story” Chimamanda Adichie
Music Videos/Lyrics
"Do They Know it's Christmas Time At All" Bandaid
"
Preparing
You must analyze the argument each source is making so that you can better evaluate if and how you will use the source to support your argument: What claim is the source making about the image of Africa? What data or evidence does the source offer in support of that claim? What are the assumptions or beliefs (explicit or unspoken) that warrant using this evidence or data to support the claim? How can you chart this information in a way that will be easily accessed as your plan your writing?
After Analysis: Finding and Establishing a Position
When considering your thesis, you need to start out by answering the question with a statement of your own position. How will you support that position? And then...go further. What do you believe contributes or had contributed to this issue? When and where did this problem arise? Is this a problem or exaggerated? Why is this idea worth talking about? Who is talking about this conversation? Who isn’t? Why not? Who does it impact directly or indirectly? What complicates this issue? Can you identify a pattern? Is there a break in the pattern? If so, why? Where is this issue going today? Who cares? The best papers will be those in which the thesis and development suggest clearly that the writer has given some thought to the nuances, the complexities of the topic.
Activities to Help Inspire and Organize
Supporting Your Argument
You need to argue your position with your resources backing you up along the way. You should have different points to your argument and your paragraphs should call upon a variety of those points rather than relying on one source for the entire paragraph. In fact, like all arguments, you need a variety of supports utilized in this argument to show your credibility and knowledge on the topic. You must develop the case for the position by incorporating within your own thinking the conversations you have had with the authors/creators of the primary sources. You should feel free to say things like, "Achebe would agree that..." or “Africanus might have opposed this idea, but the point is still valid because..." or "Hochschild offers a slightly different perspective, one that King Leopold II would have certainly denied..."
Outlining
Since your paper will cover a variety of questions related to the prompt, you need to create a thesis that will cover all of those topics. Therefore, it’s really important that you are DONE thinking before you start developing your outline.
Argument Development
Each paragraph should develop part of your argument and to support your argument you should call upon a variety of sources. When you introduce a source into your discussion, you will absolutely need to introduce them and their relationship to the topic before their ‘voice’ can be heard. You can assume their position on the topic as long as you support yourself.
Writing
You will need to use in text and parenthetical citations in your essay. Transitions are really important in this essay as you are managing a number of different supports and opinions which can get confusing without taking special care in the organization of your information.
Rubric
Essay develops a variety of related topics.
Essay consistently uses specific texts from various sources to defend argument.
Different arguments and sources are organized with transitions.
Paper is structured with keywords connecting all structural sentences.
Writing is efficient and uses appositive phrases, adverbial conjunctions, and sentence combination to save space and create a specific meaning.
Credibility of writer is boosted with SAT level vocabulary consistently and appropriately used.
The author uses the arguments in the paper to create the motive (so what) in the conclusion.